1st Cameronians 1942

Steve

This morning I've reviewed the war diary - February-May 1942 (WO 172/855). It's quite difficult as it is hand-written and then photo-copied using some war time process. As mentioned previously, the diary for this period appears to have been reconstructed after the battalion reached India.

Here is the list of officer names mentioned in the text. I was able to interpret some of the names using other sources. Is your man here?

Steve

Major R.A. Anderson wounded
2nd Lt. E. Armstrong
Captain R.A. Bradford-Martin
2nd Lt. J.A. Brown wounded
Lieutenant P.K. Bryceston
Captain J.H. Bunten
Captain B.J. Brennan
2nd Lt. A.R. Connolly killed
Major J.G. Dalziel
2nd Lt. J.M. Daniels killed
Captain T.R. Darby
Captain C.W. Elphick R.A.M.C.
Captain P.V. Gray 'B' Company Commander
Captain J.A. Grieve
2nd Lt. A.M. Heddle
2nd Lt. N.S. Leask
Captain J. Mahony 'C' Company Commander
Lieutenant G.R. Middleton Died of wounds
Captain J.A. Northey B' Company
Lieutenant G.N. Palmer
2nd Lt. G.W. Paterson
Captain J.M.H. Scott
Lt. Colonel W.B. Thomas Commanding Officer
Major R.M.H. Tynte

 

Here are the entries from the Indian Army List for October 1941 and July 1942

Steve

October 1941



July 1942

 

Bingo Steve, brilliant. He is B.J. Brennan and appears in the diary for sure, but better still in the your listing for October 1941. With his first commission stated as being 15-12-39, would this have been in India or could it have been back in Britain? Excuse my lack of knowledge here.

 

Ah! Great stuff! B.J. Brennan might be the "L.J. Burrows??" that I couldn't make out in the diary. "Brennan" fits the overall shape of the handwritten text than "Burrows" now that I have it in front of me.

This would have been back in the U.K. According to the London Gazette, he was commissioned as 2nd Lieutenant from the Honourable Artillery Company (Cadets, 162nd O.C.T.U.) on 15th December 1939. See issue 34753, pages 8308-09.

Steve

 

Many many thanks Steve. You might of guessed but Brennan ended up CO of 26 Column on Op Thursday, hence my interest. Cheers for all your help with this.

 

No problem, Steve. Funnily enough, I did a search for Brennan hoping to find out what his initials stood for.......and the first entry on the list was his gallantry recommendation on your site.

Steve

 

My dad met him some years after the war... ended up a Lloyds underwriter... I have surprisingly little information on him... very little has been published that I've come across...

 

I've got my eye on the officer in the photograph in post 34 on this thread. Possibly looks like a younger version of this image of Brennan I have:

 

That's the only image I've ever found of him too, me Ol' China...

Lt... almost middle front row...? Does have a look...

A little digging found some notes in Lloyds history... a BJ Brennan was fairly high up the food chain there in 1980 and a Brian Brennan was one of the Deputy Chairman in 1983...

 

Hi

FYI I have the Missing Men file for 1st Cameronians for 1942 if anyone needs stuff looking up.

Does anyone have the book ' The History of The Cameronians'? I copied it but missed pages 147-8 which are just the pages I need. Trying to find out what happened on 6 April 1944 when I Cameronians were on the Second Chindit expedition.

Merry Christmas!

 

Hi Steve ,
Very late reply I am afraid !
But just in case , There is no more information on the back of the photo I do believe most of the company was lost and I recall some mention of the Gurkhas being involved in rescuing some from the Japanese hands.
My father survived the retreat to India from Rangoon ( he also previously survived Dunkirk ! )

 

Thanks for coming back Dave, much appreciated.

 

Just joined this site and was excited to find, not only a wealth of info about the Cameronians time in India and Burma but also MIA lists and photographs that included my Great Uncle, 3252568 Rifleman Bertie Parkin. Bertie joined up from his village, Butterknowle in County Durham and was wounded in Burma and taken POW, dying of his wounds on or around the 19th April 1942. I’ve photos and letters from him written whilst he was posted in Trimulgherry, India if anyone is interested. His family didn’t find out what actually happened to him until 1946 when a comrade (R H Sharpe from County Durham) who was also taken POW wrote to Berties mother. Berties name appears on the memorial in his home village, the roll of honour in his local church in Lynesack and on the Rangoon memorial.

 

Thanks for posting this image Dave, my great uncle, 3252568 Rifleman Bertie Parkin appears middle row, left of centre (with a ‘tache). Never seen this before. I’ve posted more pics that he sent home plus other info on this thread. Thanks! Andrew

 

Andrew,

I have a couple of odd sheets from the 1942 MIA files for the 1st Cameronians. Bertie gets two very short mentions, but it looks like he was at the Yenangyaung oilfields when he was wounded/captured.

 

These are great, thanks, this gives me more info as to where Bertie was when he was almost certainly wounded - I'l read up more about the actual battle. Hugely appreciated. Regards, Andrew

 

Further to my earlier post, here's a small amount of detail from Bertie Parkin's (3252568 Rifleman) letters home from 1941/42 when he was serving in Meadows Barracks, Secunderabad, Deccan, India with the Cameronians: Onions with every meal and eggs costing 1d each. 10 Players cigarettes for 3d. Cakes and tea from the Charwalla which they get 'on the book' and pay for at the weekend. How the natives do everything for them and he even gets a shave in bed and then has his bed made and boots cleaned by a native. Going to the pictures to see "Green Light" and Laurel and Hardy in "A Close Shave". He goes about with a couple of friends from Hexham and Copley but doesn't mention their names.
Seems like they were living the high life for a brief time before the real ordeals began when they arrive in Burma. (Picture is of Bertie in civilian life working as a bus conductor in County Durham and his medals sent posthumously to his parents in Darlington, County Durham).

 

Sorry to be a complete pedant, once again, but I’ve noticed that quite a few contributors on here use the acronym ‘MIA’. This is, I think, an Americanism. The British Army used the term ‘Missing’. In some cases it was ‘Missing, believed Killed in Action/Died/Wounded/Prisoner’, etc., but in most cases it was simply ‘Missing’. Crucially, this does not contain any implication of ‘…in Action’. For example; it might be applied to those lost in river crossings or simply drowned whilst swimming and they might later be reclassified as ‘Died’ or ‘Died as a Result of Accident’. Others might simply have wandered off in the jungle, never to be seen again.

Rather than insert what might be an unwarranted implication, it seems preferable to stick to the official term; Missing.

I should add that I am trying to make a general point here and that it should not be taken to apply to any of the above mentioned individuals.

 

Hi Andrew,

I have researched the prisoners of Rangoon Jail for many years now, sadly, my own grandfather perished inside the jail in June 1943. Several of the Cameronians captured during the retreat from Burma in 1942 ended up in Rangoon Jail, where some survived and some did not.

From memory, many of the soldiers captured around the date given for Bertie's missing status, were held in the first instance at Moulmein, but no records of men held there exist as far as I know. By the end of June 1942 the men held ay Moulmein were sent to Rangoon and this became the main centre for Allied POWs captured in Burma from then on.

This is really just a possible pathway that Bertie may have followed, of course now we will never know for sure.

 

Here is the POW index card for Robert Henry Sharpe, the man who wrote to Bertie's mother I would imagine. Robert was captured on the 12th March 1942: